Goodwill donation center parking lots have become dumping grounds. The centers are closed and Goodwill officials ask the public to please hold off bringing items until they reopen. This is what the Huntington Beach location looked like on April 1, 2020. (Courtesy of Goodwill of Orange County)

The coronavirus health crisis that’s changing so much of American life is wreaking havoc on a world that serves as an economic stopgap in Southern California – the operations of Goodwill Industries and the Salvation Army.

Consider just one element of those businesses: Goodwill donations.

Though housebound people this month continue to drop off excess stuff at Goodwill collection sites, those donations aren’t getting into the organization’s retail supply chain. In recent weeks, Goodwill has closed retail outlets and issued layoffs and furloughs to employees. So there are few Goodwill workers left to sort through those donations and no Goodwill thrift stores open to sell them.

Instead, the items – often used clothing and housewares and old tech equipment – are piling up at dozens of collection sites, sometimes luring scavangers. But most of the stuff, given away with the intent of fueling the nonprofit, is headed to a trash heap.

“There are (donors) who are doing it in good faith, not just dumping on us,” said Janet McCarthy, chief executive of the Goodwill Serving the People of Southern Los Angeles County, which has stores and services in Long Beach, South Bay communities and other L.A. county cities, referring to the unwanted piles of donations near some Goodwill drop off centers.

“But we don’t have anyone to process it.”

It’s one of many reasons why Goodwill officials are asking the state to view their collection facilities as it already views the Salvation Army, as an “essential” operation.

Like Goodwill, the Salvation Army has closed its Southern California thrift stores. But as an organization whose services are deemed essential by the government, it has redirected its workers to other tasks to address an unprecedented spike in requests for food, shelter and other help.

Officials with both organizations said their mission continues and that the needs their agencies meet are greater than ever.

“We’re experiencing an incredible spike in requests for food assistance,” said Robert Brennan, a spokesman for the Salvation Army in Southern California.

Just one Salvation Army location in Riverside, for example, has seen a five-fold increase in food requests, from 50 food boxes a day to 250 a day, Brennan said.

Goodwill stores in the Long Beach area and the South Bay were recently closed and boarded up to avoid the possibility of looting. “As we see it, why put unnecessary strain on the police when responsible business owners are willing and able to protect their companies?” said Janet McCarthy, CEO of Goodwill Serving the People of Southern California, which has stores in Long Beach, Torrance, Carson, Cerritos, Gardena, Manhattan Beach, Norwalk, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach and Wilmington. (Courtesy of Goodwill Serving the People of Southern California)

Donations were illegally left outside a closed Goodwill store parking lot in Chino on Monday, April 6, 2020. People may have scavenged through the castoffs, creating a mess, which Goodwill staff cleaned up the same day. (Courtesy of Goodwill Southern California)

Volunteers and Salvation Army staff help ready the Salvation Army thrift store on West First Street in Santa Ana for use as an alternative shelter for homeless people who had been sleeping at the National Guard armory in Santa Ana as part of a winter shelter program. The military, called into service to help in the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus, needs use of the armories. (Courtesy of Salvation Army Orange County)

Dominick Maldonado, gets emotional as he finds out his family will have a place to stay tonight. They showed up at the Salvation Army in Santa Ana, CA on Monday, March 23, 2020, to check out possible accommodations. He is with his wife Brie Goodman and children Autumn, 9, from left, Lyam, 6, and Luna, 3. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Paul Duncan, with the Orange County Health Care Agency, moves bedding on Monday, March 23, 2020, as he readies a Salvation Army thrift store to house homeless people in Santa Ana as soon as Tuesday. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Volunteers help ready the Salvation Army thrift store on West First Street in Santa Ana for use as an alternative shelter for homeless people who had been sleeping at the National Guard armory in Santa Ana as part of a winter shelter program. The military, called into service to help in the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus, needs use of the armories. (Courtesy of Salvation Army Orange County)

Paul Duncan, with the Orange County Health Care Agency, watches as portable restrooms are set up at a Salvation Army thrift store on Monday, March 23, 2020. The site is being converted to house homeless people in Santa Ana as soon as Tuesday. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Goodwill donation center parking lots have become dumping grounds. The centers are closed and Goodwill officials ask the public to please hold off bringing items until they reopen. This is what the Huntington Beach location looked like on April 1, 2020. (Courtesy of Goodwill of Orange County)

In Orange County, Goodwill has furloughed about 60% of its workforce. The remaining 40% of the 1,400 workers at Goodwill of Orange County are still on the job, maintaining facilities and helping veterans attain social services and offering counseling to the newly unemployed. Some 40 Goodwill employees who were furloughed were hired by Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County and another eight Goodwill truck drivers were lent to Second Harvest.

“It’s a creative partnership,” said Nicole Suydam, president and CEO of Goodwill of Orange County, referring to the work with Second Harvest.

Nationally, most of the 4,000-plus Goodwill stores and donation centers have been shut down for now. But each Goodwill group is an autonomous organization, operating under the umbrella of Goodwill Industries International, so there are regional differences in programs and services -– and in how they’re handling the coronavirus-related shutdown.

At the Goodwill Southern California, which has some 120 stores and donation centers in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and a large part of Los Angeles County, more than 2,000 employees have been laid off.

Some figure to stay in touch with Goodwill, but now as clients.

“We are working with all our employees who we laid off. They’re welcome to come to our employment centers where we’ll work with them,” said Marla Eby, a spokeswoman for Goodwill Southern California.

One of the biggest problems Goodwill is now facing – besides the loss of revenue from their now-shuttered stores – is the environmental problem created by the organization’s sudden inability to handle donations. When the unprocessed stuff piles up, and the pickers are done grabbing what they like, the remains sometimes are hazardous.

Fixing that is part of the plea that Goodwill has made to Gov. Gavin Newsom in an effort to have its donation collection reclassified as essential.

“We are requesting permission to safely staff and collect donations at our donation centers – using CDC guidelines – during this crisis to avoid dumping that is unsafe and potentially harmful to our staff or a member of the public,” the Council of California Goodwill wrote Newsom on March 25.

Goodwill leaders also noted that, in normal times, their organization diverts millions of pounds from landfills every year, recycling and reselling unwanted items.

The Salvation Army isn’t facing that kind of dilemma. Its drop-off centers remain open and staffed, even though it has closed 36 thrift stores in Southern California.

But some of those stores are finding a new purpose: At least two in Orange County are now being used to house the homeless. One opened in Santa Ana on March 24 and a second, in Anaheim, is scheduled to open Wednesday, April 8.

Meanwhile, Salvation Army truck drivers who are used to picking up donations are now delivering donated food supplies. And the Salvation Army’s Southern California outlets – which include ministries, shelters and other services – continue to operate at an accelerated clip.

“Our work on front line services has exponentially increased to a point we had to redeploy nonessential workers to help meet the growing needs and demands of this crisis,” said Capt. Nesan Kistan, who runs the Salvation Army of Orange County.

“We face a crisis in the nation we’ve never faced before.”

This story was updated to correct information regarding Goodwill of Orange County, which has furloughed 60 percent of its workers but issued no layoffs.

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